I have to admit, when I saw the name of these little chewies I chuckled. Just a little too cutesy for this post-grunge cynical candy reviewer. If it was named, say, “Taffy Triage” you can bet my interest would have been piqued.

Still, what’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

(No I didn’t make that up and if you don’t know who did, here’s a hint: his name rhymes with bake-shmear.)

When a huge big box of Taffy Town Gourmet Salt Water Taffy showed up at my door with various packages like the one above, I was like “WHOA DUDES I’M GONNA GET HELLA FAT.” Because seriously we got a sh%* ton of it. (Might need to give some away to the readers. Leave a comment and ask. I’ll send.)

Let’s put the preamble aside and dive right in.

This taffy is damn good. Now I don’t know who is going out and buying taffy. I tend to consider purchasing only when I’m in candy specialty shoppes and see the barrels of flavors for mix and match bags. Taffy Town is making me think again about this (non)strategy.

These taffy chews are yummy and fun to eat. Not too hard, not too soft. Melt away nicely in the mouth. Four pieces is just 110 calories, and they’re Kosher for the 2% of you who do that. For those of you with allergies, the taffy is “completely nut, gluten & soy free.”

They are also made with no added colors so the bag of blueberry, for example, are various hues of light blue, not some lab-created aqua tourquoise you would find in big batch candies. It makes me think these things are homemade – or at least ‘small kitchen made,’ which I like.

Two things make this taffy so good:

1. It’s made with sea salt. Original taffy (when it was invented) wasn’t actually made with salt water but rather it was made near the sea and essentially marketed that way to unsuspecting children. But Taffy Town puts sea salt in theirs, and it’s good. This just in: salt makes things taste better.

2. The flavors taste real. Banana is made with banana puree. Blueberry is made with blueberry puree. The mango was subtle but when it kicked in as the taffy became chewier, it became more apparent and didn’t taste fake at all. The raspberry is actually fruity tasting. Like, almost juicy.

We were sent banana, blueberry, mango and raspberry. Kinda funny because I think most people don’t like banana candy, and mango is not usually a goto either. But actually, good choice for them to send us these ones because a simple vanilla, chocolate or peanut butter may not be as easily differentiated from other taffies.

Also note that these 4 flavors appear to be part of their Simply Taffy line. Not sure the difference these are with the other loads of flavors Taffy Town produces, though.

So yes, I may not have approved of the “Taffy Town” name change (OG name was Glade, FYI) if I was part of the family who started making these candies 100 years ago, but I sure do approve of the taste.

Buy a bunch of bags, put them in bowls, put around the office, and make more friends.